Friday, August 29, 2014

Republican Greg Abbott runs away from Texans

Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for Governor of Texas, won't debate Wendy Davis, his Democratic challenger in this year's gubernatorial election in Texas:
Republican candidate Greg Abbott has reversed his decision to appear in the only gubernatorial debate to be broadcast statewide on television. 
Abbott and his Democratic opponent, Wendy Davis, had both agreed to participate in a roundtable debate in Dallas on Sept. 30. 
But on Friday morning, Abbott's team reversed an earlier decision and said it will not participate alleging concern over the format.
In other words, Greg Abbott broke his promise to Texas voters to debate Wendy Davis. Abbott originally agreed to the terms of the debate, but he turned around and complained about the terms of the debate, so he now refuses to debate Davis.

Greg Abbott has completely disrespected Texans by refusing to appear for a debate he originally agreed to.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Amanda Curtis: She's more than a woman with a nose piercing

Montana Democratic Party (MDP) officials nominated Amanda Curtis, a teacher and state legislator from Butte, to be the replacement Democratic nominee in this year's U.S. Senate race in Montana.

Unlike what Republicans and the mainstream media are saying about her, she's far more than some woman with a nose piercing.

As a state legislator, Curtis has opposed the proliferation of guns in Montana schools, has supported increased funding for Montana schools, has opposed efforts to privatize public education in Montana, and has supported voters' rights and stricter campaign finance laws. Sure, she might have a few non-progressive positions (after all, she's running in a statewide race in Montana), but she's supported many progressive causes.

Amanda Curtis would make a good U.S. Senator for Montana, and I encourage Montanans to vote for her on November 4.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Police brutality is one of our country's most serious problems

On the afternoon of August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, a 17-year-old black male who was not armed and had no prior criminal record, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis where two-thirds of the population is black, but the vast majority of the local police officers are white.

As a result of the senseless shooting of Brown, the FBI has opened a federal civil rights violation into the matter, and violent protests have taken place in Ferguson. While I believe that rioting and vandalism is the wrong thing for people to do, police crossed the line once again when they arrested Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post, two journalists who were simply providing media coverage of the protests, for no valid reason.

Despite the fact that few elected officials in this country have made any attempt to address the issue of police brutality, police brutality is one of the most serious problems in our country.

Less than a month earlier, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old resident of New York City, was put in a chokehold by New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Daniel Pantaleo in violation of the NYPD's own protocol, and Garner died due of neck compression suffered as a result of being placed in a chokehold by a police officer. Additionally, there have been numerous incidents of police brutality in this country in the past few decades, most notably the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) beating of Rodney King in the early 1990's.

The culture of police brutality is absolutely rampant in this country, and there needs to be a large-scale effort to get rid of the culture of law enforcement officers beating, shooting, choking, and killing people when such force is not necessary. I have five ideas to end the rampant police brutality culture in this country:

  • Establish police review boards that have the power to review instances of police brutality and, with due process, fire law enforcement officers who use excessive force across the country
  • Train police officers on how much and what kind of force they can use in various situations
  • Ensure that hiring discrimination based on race, gender, etc. by law enforcement agencies is prohibited
  • Hire more minority police officers where whites make up a large part of the police force in areas with significant minority populations
  • Make instances in which a law enforcement officer uses excessive force that results in the death of one or more individuals punishable by manslaughter or murder charges
It's time to end the police brutality culture in this country.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Andrew Cuomo supports Israeli genocide of Palestinians

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, along with legislative leaders in the New York State Assembly and State Senate, announced their support for the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top state legislators are heading to Israel this week for a two-day visit as a "demonstration of solidarity" with that country in the conflict in Gaza, the Democratic governor announced Sunday. 
Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate co-leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein will travel to Israel on Tuesday. Cuomo said the delegation would meet with Israeli leaders and visit residents affected by the fighting. 
"Friends stand together in times of crisis, and I am proud to lead this bipartisan delegation to Israel to reaffirm our friendship and support," Cuomo said in a statement emailed to reporters.
If you thought Cuomo tampering with witnesses who testified before the Moreland Commission was bad (it's not only bad, it's illegal), this, in my opinion, is even worse. Cuomo, along with Democratic and Republican leaders in the New York State Legislature, publicly support an ongoing genocide that is being carried out by the Zionist, Benjamin Netanyahu-led government of Israel against Palestinian people.

To those who accuse me of being "anti-Israel" or "pro-Palestine", I'm not "anti-Israel" or "pro-Palestine" at all. I support the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist as sovereign countries. However, I don't support is the current Zionist government of Israel, and I don't support the current Hamas government of Palestine. Most importantly, I don't support genocide.

Zephyr Teachout, who is running against Cuomo in the Democratic primary (provided that the courts allow Teachout to run against Cuomo), won't be a shill for Israel or Palestine. She'll fight for progressive policies that will restore New York's middle class and improve the quality of New York's public education system. I strongly encourage Democrats in New York state to support Teachout for governor should her name appear on the primary ballot.

Friday, August 1, 2014

The Globalization Tax: What it is, and Why I support it

Walgreens, a pharmacy chain that has been headquartered in my home state of Illinois since its founding, has threatened to move its corporate headquarters from the United States to Switzerland in order to evade U.S. corporate taxes.

While Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has proposed legislation to discourage these so-called "inversions", in which U.S. companies merge with foreign companies and then set up their new headquarters overseas, I'm going to go even further than Durbin's proposal, which, if enacted, would prohibit companies that undergo inversions from accepting federal contracts, and propose enacting a globalization tax, which would require companies that conduct any business in the United States to pay U.S. corporate taxes, regardless of which country their headquarters is located.

While the globalization tax wouldn't completely do away with economic globalization, it would certainly put the reins on the economic globalization that is hurting our country's economy and costing our country millions upon millions of dollars in tax revenue. While Senator Durbin's proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, we can certainly do more to discourage companies that do business in our country from moving overseas to avoid paying corporate taxes here.